嵌入式處理器矽智財供應商之成功因素分析

Abstract

由於IC技術進步的推力與市場應用需求的拉力，SOC晶片產品成為成長最快的趨勢。IC產業需要不斷地整合更多的功能於更小體積， 快速商品化才能符合市場快速變化的需求。積極增加並廣泛運用矽智財成為加速產品上市及減少風險的關鍵因素，其中嵌入式處理器矽智財則是SOC的主要的核心技術。

台灣為全世界第二大之IC設計供應地區，許多台灣IC設計公司投入相當多的資源於SOC相關計畫。為此每年必須繳交金額龐大的矽智財權利金。因此台灣政府於2000年推廣晶片系統國家型科技計畫，其主要目標是將台灣從全球IC製造中心提升成為具有高附加價值的SOC設計中心，建立台灣在嵌入式處理器矽智財的設計能力是成敗的關鍵。

本研究從微處理器矽智財使用者的角度進行分析，訪談國內知名的IC設計公司，將SOC應用區分為三大領域: 多媒體應用、網路通訊應用、與手機應用。訪談對象提供三個關鍵成功因素。根據現有市場銷售情況與客戶的意見來看，即使已有兩家廠商主導SOC的技術，必須運用策略聯盟，並且持續專注於特定的需求領域才能在SOC領域存活。

Pressures of quick time-to-market, compact in size, and low in cost have driven the need to integrate and re-use as much IC functional modules as possible in any IC design. A SOC (System on Chip) IC consists of SIPs (Silicon Intellectual Properties) of multiple vendors. As the IC industry rapidly evolves in Taiwan, the emergence of SOC products has become the outstanding market trend. The main reason is a response to knowledge-based economy for times of the approach and the market variety that competes continuously and quickly and a continuous change and renewing to IC industry can accommodate such dynamic changes to match the timing. Among the abundant SIP pools, the embedded CPU SIP is the main core technology for SOC projects.

Most Taiwanese Fabless vendors must license the CPU SIP core and pay the subsequent royalty. To facilitate the development of domestic SIP cores, Taiwanese government has launched an IC Design science and technology project since 2000. The main target is to heighten Taiwan’s competitiveness in the international semiconductor industry by upgrading from significant IC manufacturing capability to high value-added SOC design capability. Because embedded CPU SIP is the core of any SOC, it is the focus of this government initiative.

Potential SOC applications can be categorized into three fields: multimedia, networking and mobile Phone. Domestic IC design houses have been interviewed in order to understand their concerns and preferences in selecting CPU SIP for their design. The supply side of the CPU SIP was also analyzed. Each of the two dominant suppliers of CPU SIP has different characteristics and strengths. The marketing strategies are also different. Taiwanese IC design houses of different product types generally prefer different CPU SIPs. The recommendations to the Taiwanese company which was geared to develop CPU SIP are as follow: to establish strategic alliances with third parties and to concentrate on developing key functionalities that are required by Taiwanese IC designers.